The academy workspace

The academy workspace is where your academy's staff work, at your academy's own address. Its menu lists the pages your roles open, grouped by the kind of work, and every page has the same bar at the top for searching and notifications. If you hold several roles, you see every page any of them opens.

The menu

The menu runs down the left of the screen, under your academy's mark and name and the words "Powered by Alethris". Its pages come in four groups:

• Without a heading: Overview, Programmes, Cohorts and Applications.
• Delivery: Sessions & attendance, Submissions, Rubrics, Competencies, Videos, Learners and Risk & interventions.
• Business: Payments & earnings, Discounts, Sponsors, Announcements, Analytics and Academy settings.
• Support: Support cases, Alethris Help and Guides.

Applications, Submissions and Risk & interventions carry a count of what is waiting: applications to decide, work to review and open risk cases. The counts refresh every minute. Academy settings unfolds its pages beneath it and opens on the first of them: Profile for owners and administrators, who see every settings page from Profile and Team to Audit, and Billing for a finance administrator, the only settings page that role opens. Guides opens the Alethris Guides in the Hub.

Which pages each role sees

A page that is not in your menu is not part of your work at this academy. If you open its address anyway, some pages say that your role cannot use them, and others say only that they could not be loaded. The Team, roles and permissions guide explains each role.

The bar at the top of every page

On a wide screen, each page's title sits beside Search this academy and the notifications pill, which shows how many notifications you have not read. Search opens from anywhere with ⌘K on a Mac or Ctrl+K elsewhere.

On a phone, one bar stays at the top: Open the menu, your academy's name, a search button and the notifications pill. The menu slides in over the page with the same pages, and Overview is called Today there, because a phone opens on the day's work.

The profile menu

Your name and your roles sit at the foot of the menu, the roles in short form, such as "Admin · Instructor". Choose them to open the profile menu, which holds:

• your name, email address and roles, labelled "Your Alethris account"
• Appearance, with Light and Dark
• Academy settings, for owners, administrators and finance administrators
• Alethris Hub, to go to the Hub
• Sign out

The menu ends with a reminder: "This account is yours, not an academy's. Leaving an academy never removes the credentials you earned there." Your name, password and sessions belong to your Alethris account, which you manage from the Hub.

Light or dark

Appearance switches the workspace between Light and Dark, and your choice is remembered in this browser everywhere on Alethris: the Hub, the website and every academy's Alethris address, public pages included. An academy's own domain keeps a choice of its own. Until you choose, the workspace follows the canvas your academy's homepage opens on, or your device's own setting when there is no published homepage.

When the workspace will not open

• "This area is for academy staff" Your account holds no staff role at this academy, so Back to Alethris Hub takes you to the Hub. If you expected access, ask an owner or administrator to add you.
• A page you expected is not in the menu. Your roles do not include it. A change to your roles applies the next time a page loads.

The academy workspace opens on Overview, a page of what needs you now and how the academy is doing. It is headed with a greeting, and the line under it sums up your day, such as "Two things need you. One session today, at 6:00 pm." What it shows depends on your roles: owners and administrators see the whole academy, and instructors, mentors and assessors see their own cohorts. Finance administrators see what waits on them, such as bank transfers to confirm, and the Money figures, but no sessions or cohorts, which their role does not open; their line says only what needs them.

Needs you

Needs you lists the work waiting on someone in your role, each row with the button that opens it. It is read live, whatever period the figures below count, and it disappears when nothing is waiting.

• "code has not been started" or "code has not been completed", one row for each published cohort past its start date and each running cohort past its end date that nobody has moved on. Only owners and administrators, who take those steps, see these rows. Open cohort opens the cohort, where you start or complete it or move its date.
• "n registers to finish": past sessions whose register is not yet recorded. Open sessions.
• "n learners flagged at risk", with any overdue check-ins. Review flags.
• "n submissions to assess", with the oldest. Open queue.
• "n applications to decide", with when the oldest came in. Review.
• "n bank transfers to confirm", recorded by learners. Confirm.

You see a row only if your role opens the page it leads to, and rows that have run late, such as a cohort past its start date, an unfinished register or an overdue check-in, come first.

Today and the cohorts in delivery

Today lists the day's sessions in time order, each with its programme and cohort, who runs it and how many learners are expected. Choosing one opens the session; Sessions opens Sessions & attendance. On a day without sessions it reads "No sessions today." and names the next one.

Cohorts in delivery lists up to six running and published cohorts. A running cohort shows its learners and attendance; a published one shows whether its intake is open and how many places are taken. All cohorts opens the full list. With none, it reads "No cohorts are running or scheduled", with New cohort.

Owners and administrators also see the Set up your academy checklist until it is complete, and an AI assistants card while an assistant has not been switched on.

The figures and their period

A rail of figures runs beside the page. Period at its head chooses what they count: This month, Last 30 days, This quarter, Year to date, Cohort to date or Custom…. Custom… opens Choose the period, with quick choices from the last seven days to the last six months, or a From and a To date; choose Use these dates. Cohort to date counts from the start of a running cohort you pick.

• Money: collected in the period, your earnings after fees and refunds, refunded (reversed bank transfers included), awaiting settlement (what Payments & earnings shows as Waiting on Paystack), settled to your bank, and AI credits left.
• Admissions: applied, accepted and enrolled.
• Delivery: learners in running cohorts, attendance, assignment progress (the average share of required assignments handed in or approved, which moves with every hand-in and decision) and median review time.
• Outcomes: completion, competencies verified and credentials issued. "Completion counts cohorts that have closed."

Each card shows only to the roles that may read it, so a finance administrator sees Money. A figure that cannot be read shows a dash, never a nought. If the figures cannot be read at all, the rail says "These figures cannot be read right now" and "Everything else on this page is read live and is unaffected."

For instructors, mentors and assessors

If your roles are teaching roles only, the Overview covers the cohorts you are on the staff of. Needs you counts the registers to finish and work to assess there, Today lists your sessions, and Your cohorts lists each cohort with its learners, attendance and assignment progress. The rail, Your reviews, counts what you reviewed in the last 30 days and Your median review time.

Until you are on a cohort's staff, Your cohorts reads "You are not on a cohort's staff yet": "An owner or administrator adds staff to each cohort."

Today on a phone

On a phone, the workspace opens on Today instead, dated for the day. It keeps to what can be done standing up:

• In the room shows the session under way or starting within the hour, otherwise the next one today, with Take the register.
• Needs you lists the work waiting on your role.
• Until a new academy is open for enrolment, the set-up checklist follows.

A note at the foot names the work your role does that is easier at a desk, such as "Reconciling payouts, building the homepage and setting up domains are easier on a larger screen." for an owner; it is left out when none of that is yours. The figures wait for a desk.

The academy workspace has three ways to find things. The command palette jumps to a page or a record by its name. The Search page finds a keyword across learners, assignments, projects, credentials, cohorts, programmes and members at once. Advanced search finds records that meet exact conditions, and keeps the searches you save. Every result is limited to this academy and to what your role may see.

The command palette

Press ⌘K on a Mac or Ctrl+K elsewhere, or choose Search this academy at the top of any page. Type part of a name, then choose a result:

• Pages lists the pages in your menu that match, and the Academy settings pages if you can open them.
• In this academy lists up to eight matching records once you have typed two letters, such as a learner, a cohort or a programme.
• Search offers "Search everything for "…"", which opens the Search page with your words.

The Search page

1. In the palette, type at least two letters and choose Search everything for "…". On the Search page, its own Search this academy box searches again when you press Enter.
2. Read the results, grouped by kind with a count for each. Each group shows three; Show all n reveals the rest.
3. Narrow them with the tabs above the results: All, then one for each kind found, such as Learners, Assignments, Projects, Credentials, Cohorts, Programmes or Members.
4. Choose Open on a result.

A programme or cohort opens its own page, a learner opens the Learners list filtered to their name, and an assignment opens its queue in Submissions. Members are listed without a page to open. A search shows up to 50 results; for more, use the list pages and their filters.

Search "matches words in titles, names, codes and briefs". Owners, administrators, instructors, mentors and assessors can search; credentials are found by owners and administrators only. Instructors, mentors and assessors find only the learners their Learners page shows them, and only staff among the members.

Build a query in Advanced search

Advanced search opens from the Search page once you have searched for a keyword: under "Need exact conditions rather than a keyword?", choose Build a query. The query builder opens beside the page.

1. Under Searching, choose the kind of record: Learners, Members, Programmes, Cohorts, Assignments, Projects or Credentials.
2. Choose + Condition, then a Field, a Condition and a value. Add as many as you need; every one applies, two on the same field included. A date counts as the whole day in your academy's time zone, so is between includes both days.
3. To combine conditions differently, choose + Group and set its Match to All, Any or None. + Linked record… adds a condition about a related record.
4. Optionally, under Sort by, choose + Add sort, then a field and Newest first or Oldest first.
5. Choose Done to read the results at full width.

The builder counts the matches as you edit, and Clear all starts again. Results arrive 25 at a time, with Load more under them; choose a row to open its record.

Save, run and delete searches

Choose Save this search, give it a Name, and choose Save. "Saved searches are yours, kept with this academy, and can be run from a phone." Each person keeps up to 50.

Your saved searches are listed under Saved searches whenever the page has no conditions. Choose one to run it. Delete asks "Delete name?", because "The query goes with it and would have to be built again"; choose Delete it or Keep it.

On a phone, the page is called Find someone. You cannot build a query there, as "Building a query is desk work", but you can run any search you saved at a desk with one tap.

Export the results

Export downloads the results as a CSV file, with the columns the table shows. It takes the rows loaded on the page, which the count under the table gives, such as "25 OF 60 LOADED". A value that begins with =, +, - or @, such as a name, is saved with an apostrophe in front, so a spreadsheet shows it as written and never runs it as a formula.

When a search does not work

• "Your role cannot search" None of the records search covers is open to your role, as for a finance administrator, or you chose a kind of record your role cannot read, such as Credentials for an instructor. The lists in your menu still work.
• "Your role cannot search credentials", or another kind of record, in Advanced search. Pick another kind under Searching, or ask an owner or administrator for the role you need.
• "What the server said", with a reason such as "The same field is used twice in the sort." The query was refused and nothing ran. Your conditions are still there: change what the reason names.
• "Search is not available right now" The lists and their filters still work; open the page for the kind of record you need.
• "You already keep 50 saved searches; delete one first." Delete a saved search you no longer need, then save again.
• "The search could not be saved." Nothing was saved. Try again in a moment.

As a member of staff, you hear from Alethris through notifications: work waiting to be assessed, a review assigned to you, a learner who needs following up, a change to your session, a bill to attend to. They gather in the workspace's Notifications page, an inbox for this academy alone, and the important ones arrive by email as well. Nothing in it is sent to anyone else.

Open your notifications

The notifications pill sits at the top of every workspace page, beside search, with a count of what you have not read. Choose it to open Notifications.

The page opens with how many are unread and how many arrived in the last seven days, such as "3 unread · 12 in the last seven days". Notices are grouped under Today, Yesterday, This week and Earlier, newest first, and Show older reads further back.

Each notice names what it is about and when, such as "Assessment · 2 hours ago", then says what happened. Unread notices carry a dot.

Act on a notice

1. Choose the button on a notice to open what it is about. The button names the job where there is one, such as Assess for work to review, Open case for a learner at risk, Open cohort for a cohort past its start or end date, Top up, Choose a plan or See usage for billing, and Open for the rest.
2. Choosing it marks the notice read and takes you to the page: the submission, the risk case, the session, the cohort, or the billing page.

A notice with nothing further to open offers Mark read instead. Mark all as read, at the top, marks every notice read at once. To see only what is waiting, choose the Unread tab; All brings the rest back.

While you work

A new notice also appears for a moment in the corner of whichever workspace page you are on, with the academy's name and Open. It does not appear on the Notifications page itself, where the list already shows it.

What also arrives by email

Some notices reach your email as well as the inbox: work waiting to be assessed, reviews assigned to you, changes to sessions and session reminders, a cohort whose start or end date passed without anyone starting or completing it (owners and administrators only, once for each date), billing notices such as a trial ending, AI credits expiring or a plan limit nearly reached, and updates on support cases. Alerts about learners at risk and overdue follow-ups arrive in the app only. Announcements arrive by email as well when whoever posts one chooses to, and you can stop an academy's announcement emails from your membership in the Hub. The weekly summary comes only by email, and only if you ask for it.

This academy's inbox, and others

The workspace inbox holds your staff notices for this academy. If you also learn at this academy, the notices about your own learning stay in your learning workspace, and marking everything read here leaves them alone. The Alethris Hub's Notifications gathers notices from every academy you belong to.

Notifications are not how you reach learners. The panel at the foot of the page says so: "Messages you send to learners are announcements and live under Announcements." The lesson Post and manage announcements explains them.

When a notice will not open

• The button opens a page your role cannot reach. Your roles changed since the notice was sent, or it concerns work outside your role. Ask an owner or administrator.
• An announcement offers only Mark read. Assessors and finance administrators do not open the Announcements page, so the notice already holds the announcement's whole text.
• "Notifications could not be loaded" Nothing is lost. Choose Try again.

An announcement is a one-way message from your academy to a cohort, the active learners of a programme, or the whole academy. It reaches their Alethris notifications and, while Also send it by email is ticked, their email too. Owners, administrators, instructors and mentors open Announcements from the Business group of the menu.

Who can post to whom

• Owners and administrators choose A cohort, The whole academy or A programme.
• Instructors and mentors are offered only the Cohort list: "The published and running cohorts you teach or mentor. Owners and administrators can also write to a programme or the whole academy."

Changing a draft or retracting needs the same reach, so instructors and mentors can do either only for their own cohorts. Another draft reads "You cannot change this draft".

Write and post an announcement

1. Choose New announcement.
2. Under Audience, choose who sees it:
   • A cohort: choose the Cohort, then Active learners, Cohort staff or Everyone active in the cohort.
   • The whole academy: choose Every active member, Staff only or Active learners.
   • A programme: choose the Programme, for its active learners. A self-paced programme is announced to this way.
3. Write the Subject, up to 160 characters, and the Message, up to 4,000, in plain text: "Links are allowed; attachments are not."
4. Under Delivery, leave Also send it by email ticked, or untick it to keep the announcement in the app.
5. Choose Post and email n people (Post to n people when it is not emailed), or Save draft to finish it later.

The form counts the audience as you choose it: "n people will see this." The people it reaches are fixed when you post, "so anyone who joins afterwards will not see it." It goes out at once; it cannot be scheduled.

Announce the change, offered when you move a cohort's dates, opens this form addressed to it.

If the academy's assistant is on, Draft with assistant writes the message. Nothing is sent until you post it.

Sending an announcement by email

Also send it by email is ticked for every new announcement, and a draft keeps the choice it was saved with. "Anyone who has stopped this academy's announcement emails sees it only in the app."

The email comes from your academy "via Alethris", and replies go to your support address when the academy has one. Its Read the announcement button opens the announcement where each reader reads it. Its footer names whom you sent it to, such as "the learners on programme", and links to stop your academy's announcement emails, as Announcements and notifications from your academy explains. Emails go out within a minute or so, and nobody receives the same announcement twice.

The list of announcements

Announcements lists every announcement, ten to a page, newest first. Each row shows the audience, the status unless it is published, how many it reached and whether it went "App and email" or "App only", the subject, who wrote it and when, and how many opened it, such as "18/24". Find an announcement…, Scope, Status and Published narrow the list.

An announcement is Draft, Publishing, Published, Failed or Retracted. A draft opens for editing. A failed one says "Publication failed. Nobody was notified; Retry sends it to the audience captured at the failed attempt." Retry publication sends it.

Export saves the page's rows as a CSV file.

What the record shows

Open a posted announcement to see its record: the message, and where and how it went, such as "Sent to cohort 24B — Evening Product Design · Active learners, in the app and by email." Under it:

• "Opened in the app": how many recipients have opened it, such as "18 of 24", and when it was last opened. Reading only the email does not count.
• "Emailed": how many emails were sent, such as "23 of 24", and what became of the rest: "had stopped this academy's emails", "returned by the recipient's mail server", "not sent to an address that bounced or reported spam", "still sending", "could not be sent" or "cancelled when it was retracted". Otherwise it reads "Every email was sent."

Recipient counts are the audience captured when it was posted: "a learner in two of these cohorts received one notification, not two."

Retract an announcement

Retracting takes a published announcement out of the app for everyone it reached.

1. Open the announcement and choose Retract announcement….
2. Read Retract this announcement?, which for an emailed announcement says "Emails already sent stay in people's inboxes, and anyone who has read it has read it."
3. Choose Retract announcement, or Cancel.

The record then shows Retracted, and counts the emails not yet sent as cancelled.

When an announcement cannot be posted

• "This announcement cannot be sent yet." The form lists what is missing, such as "No cohort chosen" or "The message is empty". Nothing was delivered or lost.
• "Active Cohort assignment required" You do not teach or mentor that cohort. Ask an owner or administrator to add you, or to post it.
• "The audience could not be counted; publishing still resolves it." Posting works out the audience itself.
• A cohort is missing from the list. Only published and running cohorts are listed, and instructors and mentors see only their own.
• "Your roles cannot post announcements" Ask an owner, an administrator, or the cohort's instructor or mentor to post it.

The weekly summary is an email that tells a member of staff, once a week, what is waiting for them at one academy: learners who need attention, work waiting to be assessed, registers nobody has started, and places waiting to be paid for. It counts them and never names a learner, and it covers only what your role lets you see. Owners and administrators read the whole academy's figures; an instructor, mentor or assessor reads the cohorts they are on the staff of; a finance administrator reads the places waiting to be paid for across the academy.

The summary is off until you turn it on, and a week with nothing waiting sends nothing.

Turn it on for yourself

You choose the summary in the Alethris Hub, from your membership of the academy, because it belongs to you rather than to the academy.

1. In the Hub, open My academies and choose the academy's name. Your membership page opens.
2. In the Weekly summary card, switch on Send me the weekly summary.
3. Choose Which day, from Monday to Sunday. The day is "In the academy's own timezone."
4. Choose What time: 6:00 am, 7:00 am, 8:00 am, 9:00 am, 10:00 am, 12:00 pm, 2:00 pm or 5:00 pm.

Each change saves as you make it. The card then gives the next one, such as "Next on Monday 12 October at 8:00 am." Until you choose, the summary is set for Monday at 8:00 am.

The card is offered to owners, administrators, finance administrators, instructors, mentors and assessors. A member who is only a learner does not see it.

What the email says

The email arrives with the subject "What needs you at academy" and the heading "Your week at academy". It lists only the lines that have something in them, such as "3 pieces of work waiting to be assessed, the oldest for 4 days." or "2 places are waiting to be paid for". Its button opens the academy workspace, and it ends by saying why you received it and with a link to stop it.

No summary is sent while your membership of the academy is suspended.

Switch it off for the academy

An academy can decide that its staff receive no weekly summary at all. If you are an owner or an administrator:

1. In the academy workspace, open Academy settings, then Notifications.
2. In the Weekly summary card, switch off Let staff subscribe to the weekly summary.

"Switching this off stops every weekly summary for this academy, and nobody's own choice is forgotten." While it is off, each person's membership page shows their card under Paused by the academy, and no "Next on" date. Switch it back on and the summaries resume for everyone who had chosen one, each on that person's own day and hour, so nobody receives the summaries they missed all at once. The academy's switch is on until someone turns it off.

Stop it from the email

1. In a weekly summary email, choose Stop the weekly summary.
2. On the page that opens, headed "Stop the weekly summary?", choose Stop the weekly summary.
3. The page confirms "The weekly summary is off", and Open your membership takes you to the card if you want it back.

The page asks before stopping anything, so a link opened by an email scanner changes nothing. Your email app's own unsubscribe button, where it shows one, stops the summary too. Stopping it affects this academy only, and leaves its announcement emails alone: they have their own Announcement emails card on the membership page.

When it does not work

• "The weekly summary covers work this academy has not given you" None of what the summary counts is open to your roles here. Ask an owner or administrator if your roles should change.
• "This link is no longer valid" The stop link is out of date. "Sign in and turn the weekly summary off from your membership instead." Go to My academies takes you there.
• "The weekly summary could not be saved. Nothing changed." Try the switch again in a moment.
• No summary arrives. Nothing was waiting that week, the academy has switched summaries off (your card then says Paused by the academy), or your membership is suspended.

Your academy sends emails on its own: an offer of a place, a payment receipt, a session reminder, an assessment result and more. Each goes out in Alethris's standard wording until you write your own. If you are an owner or an administrator, you reword them in the academy workspace under Academy settings, then Notifications, in the Emails the academy sends card.

You can change three parts of each email: its Subject, its Headline and its Message. The greeting, the button, the details panel and the footer stay as they are, and the notice the same event puts in a person's inbox keeps the standard wording.

Find an email

The Emails the academy sends card groups the emails under Applications and offers, Payments, Enrolment and access, Cohorts and sessions, Assignments and assessment, Credentials and Staff. Each row names the email, says who receives it and when, and shows one of three badges:

• Standard wording: recipients get Alethris's wording.
• Your wording: recipients get wording you published.
• Changes not published: the email has a draft that differs from what is sent.

Choose a row to open the email. Its page says who receives it under Who gets it, and whether recipients get your wording or the standard one.

Reword an email

1. Change the Subject, the Headline or the Message. Leave Subject empty to use the standard subject. In Message, leave a blank line between paragraphs.
2. To name a detail the email fills in for each person, such as the programme's title, put the cursor where it belongs and choose Insert beside it under Details you can use. It appears in double braces, such as {{programmeTitle}}, and each email puts the real detail in its place.
3. Your wording saves to a draft as you type; the status under the page title says when it last saved. Nobody receives the draft.

To see the email as a recipient would, choose Preview. It is filled in with sample details: the real email names the real person, programme and dates. To go back to Alethris's wording, choose Use the standard wording…, then Put back the standard wording.

Publish it

1. Choose Publish…. It is available once your wording differs from what is sent.
2. Enter your password if asked, and choose Publish.

The page confirms with Email published, and every email of this kind is sent in your wording from then on. Emails already sent keep the wording they went out with.

Put back an earlier version

Every wording you publish is kept under Published versions, with the date it was published; Sent now marks the one in use. To send an earlier one again, choose Restore… beside it, enter your password if asked, and choose Restore. It is published again as a new version, and it becomes the draft on the page too.

When something is refused

• A detail the email cannot fill in. The message names it in braces and says it "is not a detail this email can fill in". Choose a detail from Details you can use instead. The draft does not save until it is fixed.
• "Write a headline." or "Write a message." Neither can be empty.
• "This contains something an email cannot send, such as code." Use plain words.
• "Someone else changed this email after you opened it." Reload the page to see their wording, then make your change again.
• "Owners and admins only" Only owners and administrators reword the academy's emails.